Thyra Ragnarsdottir

Thyra Ragnarsdottir was the daughter of Earl Ragnar the Fearless.

Biography
Thyra Ragnarsdottir was the daughter of Earl Ragnar the Fearless and the sister of Ragnar Ragnarsson, and the family later adopted their servant Uhtred of Bebbanburg as their son. Uhtred, Thyra, and the servant girl Brida were playmates during their youths in the Danish-settled town of Leeds in England, and Uhtred saved Thyra from the shipmaster Kjartan's son Sven Kjartansson, who stripped her half-naked in the woods and attempted to rape her before being attacked by Uhtred. By 871, Thyra was betrothed to marry a man who lived across a field from her family, but the wedding party was attacked by Kjartan, Sven, and their warband, who burned down the Great Hall with most of the guests (including Thyra's mother and her grandfather Ravn) inside, and killed Ragnar and many others outside of the hall. Uhtred and Young Ragnar (who was away campaigning in Ireland) believed Thyra to have died in the fire, but she was instead taken as a sex slave by Kjartan, Sven, and their men, who brought her to Kjartan's new stronghold of Dunholm and abused her. She lived in a prison cell with several hounds, and her mental state deteriorated, while she also forgot about her family, who were unaware that she was still alive. In 880, her brothers attacked Dunholm, and Thyra had her hounds savagely kill Sven, while Ragnar killed Kjartan. Thyra initially claimed that her brothers were no better than the men who had whored her, but Father Beocca helped to restore her faith in her family, and they soon fell in love. In 884, Beocca proposed to Thyra, and she accepted.